Quotation: Parables, Sound Architectures, and Light Filament Mazes

“I work in parables, in sound architectures. If you're able to allow yourself to walk in this world, then you can begin to understand the language. It's no different than when you're talking with a computer. I make mazes for you to walk into that are filled with light filament. Sometimes it's about where you are. Sometimes you have to look at the part of yourself that's a terrorist. It's very easy to spot the stranger carrying a bomb in a knapsack. What's very tricky is within our own personal universes, where we don't know how to tell a friend they've overstayed their welcome, or when they've not treated you fairly. That's where we're tested. That's what I write about.”

- Tori Amos -

“A queen is wise. She has earned her serenity, not having had it bestowed on her but having passer her tests. She has suffered and grown more beautiful because of it. She has proved she can hold her kingdom together. She has become its vision. She cares deeply about something bigger than herself. She rules with authentic power.” 

- Marianne Williamson –

Your light is seen, your heart is known, your soul is cherished by more people than you might imagine. If you knew how many others have been touched in wonderful ways by you, you would be astonished. If you knew how many people feel so much for you, you would be shocked. You are far more wonderful than you think you are. Rest easy with that. Breathe again. You are doing fine. More than fine. Better than fine. You’re doing great and don't let anything or anyone steal your right to feel good about yourself.”

- Neale Donald Walsch -

Quotation: Dancing With The Gifts

“The point of life is not to get anywhere - it is to notice that you are, and have always been, already there. There is no such thing as an incorrect path - for on this journey you cannot "not get" where you are going.”

- Neale Donald Walsch -

“I want to be able to dance through the people that come in and go out of your life. I want to learn how to dance with the gifts when they come and the gifts when they need to take a different route.”

- Tori Amos –

“The purpose of dancing isn't to end up at a particular spot on the floor. The purpose of dancing and of life is to enjoy every moment and every step, regardless of where you are when the music ends.”

- Dr Wayne W. Dyer –

Quotation: Trails You Leave Behind

“The past is a trail you leave behind, much like the wake of a speedboat. That is, it's a vanishing trail temporarily showing you where you were. The wake of a boat doesn't affect it's course--obviously it can't since it appears behind the boat. So consider this image when you exclaim that your past is the reason you aren't moving forward.”

- Dr Wayne Dyer -

"Remember your name.

Do not lose hope — what you seek will be found.

Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn.

Trust dreams.

Trust your heart, and trust your story.

When you come back, return the way you came.

Favors will be returned, debts will be repaid.

Do not forget your manners.

Do not look back."

- Neil Gaiman [Instructions] -

“I’m at the stage where I’m becoming fulfilled as a woman. Nothing special about it, no fireworks. But so much of the time you’re the daughter of somebody, or the wife of somebody, or the mother of somebody - you’re always trying to find the path from girlhood to partner-hood to adulthood and it’s nice to have just womanhood. I’m enjoying walking down this particular road right now.”

- Tori Amos -

Quotation: Riding The Wave

"Every positive change – every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness – involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception."

- Dan Millman -

“When you talk about somebody's body map - an idea that I've been circling for awhile - I think that we all have an invisible map. And at a certain point in your life, you can begin to look and really see which places resonate with you, pull you in. You might have only been to a place one time; you might not have even been there at all, but it's a place that gives you a physical response."

- Tori Amos -

"The universe is a moving wave, always creating new possibilities for the actualization of love. To be enlightened means to ride the wave."

- Marianne Williamson -

Quotation: Faith Is A Place Of Mystery

"When a cupboard is full to overflowing and the doors are opened up, that which is within comes tumbling out and nothing can stop it. When floodgates are opened, the water rushes forth with tremendous power and force, carrying all before it. So with the spiritual power within you; once it has been recognised and released, nothing can stop the flow. It pours forth, sweeping aside all negativity and disharmony, bringing with it peace, love, harmony and understanding. It is love that will overcome the world; it is love which will unite all humanity. Therefore the sooner you release that tremendous power of love within you and allow it to flow freely, the sooner will you behold world peace and harmony and the oneness of all humanity. When you have love in your heart, you draw the very best out of everyone, for love sees only the best and therefore draws forth the best. Be not afraid; open up, hold nothing back, and let it all flow freely."

- Eileen Caddy -

“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.” 

- Brene Brown - 

“I’ve been racing my boat lately. It’s really small—fourteen feet. I’m trying to learn the skill of taking waves and weaving in and out of the water. I just love being out on the water and having all of these massive boats pass by and get me all wet. I did something a couple of days ago that was totally humbling. I went out into the big ocean in my tiny little boat because it was very calm. And it was such a good feeling. I’m a bit cynical about religious deities right now, but sometimes you go out to the ocean and it’s really simple, “Ocean... big.” In a sense, your faith gets restored because if a storm kicks up, then a storm kicks up. It’s not personal. With religions, I was taught if you do x, y, and z and you confess and you pray and you ask to be absolved and you do all these things, then God will respond. And that’s a lie. There’s no guarantee that God will do anything. I’m really learning it’s a free will planet and certain things are going to happen to certain people. No matter how loving you are or giving you are, you might face loss-tragically. And there’s no “get out of loss free” card, just because you go to church.” 

- Tori Amos -

Quotation: No Pre-requisites, Just As Is.

"A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching."

- Sivananda -

“There’s the inner world which is a reflection of the outer world, and when you think of all the billions of worlds that are going on out there - we are connected with that, we’re not encouraged to think of our connection as why we are on this planet. Is our life just functional; is that all that is? Getting up, going to work, having kids, to just populate the planet? I mean there have to be reasons we do things...”

- Tori Amos -

"Men and women who carry a deep sense of love and belonging, believe that they're worthy of love and belonging. The trick is no pre-requisites. Just as is, right now, worthy of long belonging. Not when I make partner, not when I lose 20 pounds, not if I get pregnant, not when my husband comes back, not if my daughter gets into Yale, not if I make the fortune 500. No pre-requisites. Just as is, right now, worthy of love and belonging. And the last thing is a resilient spirit. That is an absolute outcome of being able to live in your story. We get to re-write the endings of our stories if we're willing to walk into them and open them. It's a powerful thing."

- Brene Brown -

Quotation: The Endless Immensity Of The Sea

"You can close up yourself, but when you don't do that, then things will show up in you which you are reluctant to think about. These do not really have to be good thoughts, but I have understood that monsters are neither good nor bad, they are just there. There are things in you which are good and there are other things which are bad. Sometimes you are cruel, sometimes you are the victim, sometimes you are passionated and sometimes not, what counts is the whole being. Some things you simply can not exclude. You have to show responsibility for your whole being. Try to learn as much as possible about yourself and show responsibility."

- Tori Amos –

“Thoughts are not feelings; rather, they are ideas of how you "should" feel. When thoughts and feelings get confused, truth becomes clouded, lost.”

- Neale Donald Walsch –

"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

- Antoine De Saint Exupery -

Quotation: Oceans To Fly

“Intuition is not a single way of knowing – its’ our ability to hold space for uncertainty and our willingness to trust the many ways we’ve developed knowledge and insight, including instinct, experience, faith, and reason.”

- Brene Brown -

"I’m obsessed by the sea. For me, writing music is like jumping off a cliff and then deep-sea-diving among new coral reefs. I think women are like water, while men are much more like clay, like earth."

- Tori Amos -

"Everyone has Ocean's to fly, if they have the Heart to do it. Is it reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries?"

- Amelia Earhart -

Quotation: Don't Miss Magic Happening

"I believe in energy, everything is energy. And therefore sometimes magic can be created if somebody is open to letting energy do what it does, instead of being so cynical, that you miss magic happening. "

- Tori Amos -

"Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there."'

- Eckhart Tolle -

“Events do not have meanings. Events are events, and meanings are thoughts. Nothing has any meaning save the meaning you give it. And the meaning you give to things does not derive from any event, circumstance, condition or situation exterior to yourself. The Giving of Meaning is entirely an internal process. Entirely.”

- Neale Donald Walsch -

Quotation: Living In Imaginary Worlds

"After a decade of studying topics like vulnerability, shame, and courage, I’ve come to believe that our lives are a powerful collection of stories – truths about who we are, what we believe, what we come from, how we struggle, and how we are strong.

When we practice the courage it takes to own our story, we gain access to our worthiness – the feeling that we are enough just as we are, and that we are worthy of love and belonging.

If we spend a lifetime trying to distance ourselves from the parts of our lives that don’t fit with who we think we’re supposed to be, we stand outside of our story and hustle for our worthiness by constantly performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving.

Hustling is all about shame. When we understand shame and start to cultivate shame resilience we can start to stand strong in the center of our story."

- Brene Brown -

"I was imaginative, a bit of a dreamer but quite a timid child. I wasn’t confident – I think childhood is one of the most uncertain and terrifying places to be. I don’t know if I’d want to go back there. But I do remember being completely involved in imaginary games that would last for days, weeks. It was always magic, sorcery, living in trees. A lot of just living in imaginary worlds. I don’t think I’ve lost that. It’s just now I’m doing it as a job."

- Florence Welch -

"There's room for everybody on the planet to be creative and conscious if you are your own person. If you're trying to be like somebody else, then there isn't."

- Tori Amos -

Quotation: Sounds Of The Universe

“To overcome perfectionism, we need to be able to acknowledge our vulnerabilities to the universal experiences of shame, judgement and blame; develop shame resilience; and practice self-compassion. When we become more loving and compassionate with ourselves and we begin to practice shame resilience, we can embrace our imperfections. It is in the process of embracing our imperfections that we find our truest gifts: courage, compassion, and connection.”

- Brene Brown -

“To have uncategorized feelings and emotions. To make or do things that don’t sometimes necessarily make sense. “Art” is all just perfectly imperfect. Once the word “Art” enters the description of what your up to it is almost like getting a hall pass from perfection. It thankfully releases us from any expectation of perfection. In relation to my own work not being perfect, I just always point to the tattered box behind the couch and mention the word  “Art” and people seem to understand and let you off the hook about being perfect and go back to their business.”

- Nicholas Wilton -

“Music is something that chooses us, and it’s truly an elixir. I’ve never experienced anything in my life like music. Because it doesn’t make demands in the way that a relationship does. I do feel like it’s boundless and endless. And when I read that there’s tone out in the galaxy -- I was reading somewhere the other day, that there was a place that had a b flat – that was it’s tone[one of my favourite keys] - and I was just thinking to myself, the idea, the sounds that the universe makes, creates… and WE are a part of that. When we want to give up and have a hard day, when we feel like we don’t fit here on the planet. We have this opportunity to be part of creativity, and that is just- that’s why we’re here.”

- Tori Amos –

Quotation: Hidden Silences

“One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people.”

- John O'Donohue -

“You can only write your biography once, so you have to start having new experiences. You have to constantly develop as a person and see sides to yourself that you might not want to see. Even if you're the observer in your work, you are in there, and if you don't keep finding out the different beasts that live inside, then you just become this stagnant character." 

- Tori Amos -

“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.”

-  Brené Brown -

Quotation: Colours On The Palette

“There’s a point in your life when you know who stays forever and who’s just around for a while. People change, but so do you. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Bad things happen to everyone, you’re not in it alone. People lie and some people just don’t care how you feel. Your heart beats no matter how much pain you’re in. Everything will be okay eventually. There are always people in your life that just make your day no matter the miles. I’d rather stay in touch with the people I love than just drop it and forget about it. You don’t forget about the ones you love, it doesn’t work like that. Give it all you got, and live your life to the fullest. People would kill to have what you have. Someone always has it worse off than you, but that doesn’t mean your pain doesn’t count. That’s okay. “

- Samuel Effron -

“Until we have seen someone’s darkness, we don’t really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone’s darkness, we don’t really know what love is.”

- Marianne Williamson -

"If you're living a full life, pain is one of the colors on the palette... It's one of the things that makes you remember you can feel. One of the things. Humor's another thing. They all work together. When you negate any of these emotions then you're not working with a very complex palette, you're just working with a couple of colors."

- Tori Amos -

Quotation: Listen To Your Senses

“Indeed our hearts are golden treasures, but a true tragedy would be to conceal your inner gold because you are afraid of someone stealing it or it falling and breaking. There is no love in fear. The great wisdom of the ages always tells us the more you are Love the more of it you receive. Love is not a giving or a taking, it is a state of being – a one way street of allowing, accepting and holding a space for all things to be exactly as they are. Fear not that your heart will be broken or stolen. Love becomes loves. Give it away with no expectation of return and soon you will be having a love affair with the whole world.”

- Jackson Kiddard -

“Let yourself be influenced by what the music does to you. Listen to your senses. Your feelings. The music tells you all you need to know, because the emotions in the music go beyond words. The lyrics are merely a pointer in the right direction. Every sound, every note contributes to the character of the song and is thus a link in the bigger whole.” 

- Tori Amos –

“Be not the slave of your own past- plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain and overlook the old.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Quotation: Believe In The Fairies

“I believed in fairies and other spiritual things, was sunk in my own world of imagination, believed in the unseen world, what I still do today. But over the time I started to feel like a nitwit. I mean, when you smoke dope, it might be normal, but like this? You sit in your English lesson and you are talking to a fairy. The people did not want to understand that, and when you are 13, you don't want to be faced with a pityful smile all the time. So I began to destroy the part in me that is actually creative. Instead, I became very cynical, disguised myself to become popular, to be loved by everyone. But actually that was nothing else than a game of hide-and-seek. You can be a bigmouth without having anything to say. At that time, I definitely only had the wish to be an in-chick. Today I know that you should have your own thoughts and that you have to stick to your point of view. Today I accept that not all people like me, that's all right.”

- Tori Amos -

"Compassionate people are boundary people... The heart of compassion is really acceptance. The better we are at accepting ourselves and others, the more compassionate we become. Well, it's difficult to accept people when they are hurting us or taking advantage of us or walking all over us. This research has taught me that if we really want to practice compassion, we have to start by setting boundaries and holding people accountable for their behavior."

- Brene Brown -

“Release the need to be upset with others. Remember that anytime you're filled with resentment, you're turning the controls of your emotional life over to others to manipulate.”

- Dr. Wayne Dyer -

Quotation: You Are Not Who You Were Yesterday

“Creativity burns like a fire through the stuckness and dis-ease held in our bodies and turns what doesn’t serve us into ash. It dissolves the layers of conditioning that were put upon us and brings us closer to knowing who we truly are, our absolute nature and what we are capable of.”

- Lynn Zavaro -

"But unless we are creators we are not fully alive. What do I mean by creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint of clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career."

- Madeline L’Engle –

"You are not who you were yesterday; whoever you were before this moment is literally a construct of your imagination. At this moment you have the power to choose whatever quality of personhood you desire. And because all minds are joined, whatever decision you make will in time be the way others see you as well..."

- Marianne Williamson -

 

Quotation: The Secret Door In The Wardrobe

"Of course, you can listen to a record or go and see a piece of art, but there isn't a short cut to being initiated into the mysteries of 'Woman,'" she continues "It's not like you can go somewhere and study being a woman for a month you have to locate the secret door in the wardrobe and figure out how to open it."

- Tori Amos - 

"The Artist creates something out of nothing! Without the thoughts and feelings of the Artist, there would be no art. It's their particular creative mind in contemplation that links to intention to give birth to what we call an artistic creation. This is how the power of intention worked in creating you, someone new, entirely unique, something out of nothing. Reproducing this in yourself means encountering the creative impulse and knowing that the power of intention is reaching for the realization of all that it feels, and that it is expressing itself as YOU!"

- Wayne Dyer -

"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins."

- Bob Moawad -

Quotation: Conjuring Calm

"Calm is really difficult to conjure up," says Amos, "but it's not hard to muster rage; you can pull rage out of your ass without even needing fingernails. What I've found harder to achieve is the ability to focus my anger, to be in control of myself enough that if somebody takes a shot at me, they don't necessarily get a response back -- that's when you've done your work, that's when you're a powerful woman."

- Tori Amos -

"Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are." 

- Pema Chodron -

“Certainty is a dream-killer because it stops us from exploring the possibility that we don’t know everything, and that we might be able to create something better.” 

- Danielle LaPorte -

Quotation: Call Of Freedom

“We say, ‘you know it in the head, but don’t know it in the heart’. There is an extraordinary distance from the head to the heart, a distance of ten, twenty, thirty years or a lifetime. You can know something in the head for forty years and it may never have touched the heart. But only when you have realised it in the heart, do you really begin to take notice of it.”

- Carl Jung -

"As a bird soars high

into the free holding of wind,

clear of the uncertainty of ground,

She opened her wings of imagination.

Soaring into the grace of creativity -

She flew past restlessness

satisfying her hunger for flight.

In that instant, she awakened

to the call of freedom

and knew who she was."

- Stephey Baker -

 "There's a light on humanity's horizon and it is beckoning to all of us. We can't see it with the outer eye but only with the inner eye. It's like a magnet that's drawing us toward a different kind of life on earth, one in which love is the new bottom line."

- Marianne Willliamson -

Quotation: Become It

“It doesn’t matter to me anymore whether something’s bad or wrong. I’ve been too busy with that my whole life. Life is a test and you learn from the moment things happen to you. How do you react? Are you getting depressed? Do you feel like you’re a failure? Or do you think: ‘OK, that happened, this is what I said, or that didn’t go the way I expected’. One who plays safe will never know what he or she is capable of. If you are afraid to go too far or to show who you really are then you are not living life the fullest.”

- Tori Amos - 

"The problem is that when we don't care at all what other people think and we're immune to hurt, we're also ineffective at connecting. Courage is telling our story, not being immune to criticism. Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection"

- Brené Brown -

“No matter what your weakness is, your potential for strength is bigger. No matter what your fear is, love is bigger. And so it is. Affirm it. Know it. Receive it. Become it.”

- Marianne Williamson -